Economic Update

Market and economic review US-China trade uncertainties drive risk sentiment Risk assets performed well over the week as US-China trade tensions improved. Due to an escalation in US-China trade tensions at the end of last week investors began Monday on the back foot. However, the nervousness was quickly alleviated as President Trump, whilst attending the […]

Investment markets and key developments over the past week The past week saw share markets boosted by renewed hopes for US-China trade talks helped by a conciliatory approach from China. This saw US and Eurozone shares rise and Japanese and Chinese shares recover from earlier declines. Australian shares fell sharply early in the week but […]

Market and economic review Equity volatility falls and bond yields rise despite uninspiring global growth prints Global equities were broadly mixed last week with most major indices climbing around 1% to 2%, which the exception of the US indices, which were down -1-2%. What was particularly noticeable was the fall in volatility, after two weeks […]

Investment markets and key developments over the past week The past week saw a roller coaster ride in share markets with sharp falls after China responded to Trump’s latest tariffs by letting the Renminbi fall in value and ordering state owned enterprises to halt agricultural imports from the US and the US responded by labelling […]

Weekly consumer sentiment; Reserve Bank Board minutes Consumer confidence: The weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence rating fell by 2.3 per cent to 112.8 points. Consumer sentiment is now below the average of 114.5 points held since 2014 and the longer term average of 113.1 points since 1990. Reserve Bank: Minutes of the August 6 Reserve […]

We don’t need an inverted yield curve to tell us a global manufacturing downturn may be underway. The business networks were flashing red all day last Wednesday as the spread between the U.S. Treasury 2- and 10-year yields turned negative for the first time since 2007. We’ve written a lot about why we think the […]

Australian payouts seasonally quiet, highlighting benefits of global exposure The deceleration in the world economy has begun to make an impact on dividends, according to the latest Janus Henderson Global Dividend Index. The total paid to shareholders broke a new record of $513.8bn in the second quarter, but the rate of increase was the slowest […]

Market and economic review A Stellar week for government bonds, as longer-dated yields reach record lows At the start of last week, 30-year US government bonds were yielding 2.25%, having tightened by roughly 75bp since the beginning of this year. To put it in context, that equates to a total return of 24%, roughly 10% […]

Investment markets and key developments over the past week The past week saw share markets remain under pressure as the trade war rolled and Chinese and German economic data was weak leading to an intensification of global growth fears particularly after declining US bond yields saw a further inversion in the US yield curve. While […]